Nigel Farage threatens Natwest with legal action unless it settles his compensation claim
Nigel Farage has threatened Natwest new CEO Paul Thwaite with legal action with an aim to make “sale of shares very difficult,” unless the bank settles “an ongoing compensation claim with him.”
Writing on X (formerly Twitter) last night, Farage, said “I have had court papers ready for some time and unless @NatWestGroup want to have a sensible conversation, I will make a public sale of shares very difficult indeed.”
It was confirmed this morning that Natwest group opted for Thwaite as its new CEO, concluding the process of finding a new boss after Dame Alison Rose resigned over the leaking scandal.
Rose stood down last July after she outed herself as the source of a BBC story into the finances of Farage, who had claimed that Natwest-owned Coutts had ‘debanked’ him over his political views.
Speaking to The Telegraph, the founder of Reform UK (formerly the Brexit Party) said he will issue court proceedings against the bank “within days” if it does not settle an ongoing compensation claim with him as well as it has to promise to stop closing the accounts of customers whose views it does not agree with.
He added that “there has been no change of culture at the bank whatsoever.”
Back in December, it was reported that Nigel Farage was set to launch a legal fight with Natwest over the debanking and leaking saga.
It was understood that he instructed London-based law firm Grosvenor Law to begin the legal battle, despite that, there is currently no claim showing up on the High Court claim’s system.
The Chancellor Jeremy Hunt revealed last November that the government was looking to offload its remaining stake in Natwest to retail investors over the next year as part of a bid to boost participation in public markets.
It was reported last month by Morning Wire, that the government is preparing to start selling its shares in Natwest to retail investors as soon as the middle of this year.
Farage told The Telegraph that the bank was “not fit for a public sale of shares” until it had put its house in order. He stresses that it would be “very, very difficult indeed” for a share sale to go ahead if the bank was in the middle of a messy and highly public legal battle with him.
Speaking on a media call, Natwest chairman Howard Davies commented on Farage’s story saying “the legal proceedings or potential legal proceedings is not something that we can comment on. I don’t think you’d expect us to, nor could we comment on the affairs of an individual customer.”
He did explain that following the events of last summer, the group commissioned two independent reviews from law firm Travers Smith, the findings of which was published.
He noted that the law firm pointed to a number of failings in the way the group handled both a particular client, but also more generally handled client exits, and made a series of recommendations, and they are being pursued actively at the moment. He addded: “That involves some changes to practices, which are very straightforward changes to practice, but there is also some cultural element to that”
He said that the new CEO Paul Thwaite “was not involved in this matter.”
“I’m entirely confident that he has the down-to-earth and straightforward approach needed to drive change in the bank where change is needed. And that is what he is engaged in,” he added,